SABC Board vacancies: Shortlisting of Candidates

Meeting report

Election of Acting Chairperson
According to the Rules of Parliament, Members firstly unanimously elected Mr R Tseli (ANC) as Acting Chairperson for the meeting. Apologies for Members unable to attend were given.

Shortlisting of Candidates for SABC Board vacancies
The Acting Chairperson noted that there were now three vacancies on the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Board, due to three resignations. The purpose of this meeting was to shortlist candidates for the positions. He apologised that some Members had received the list only shortly prior to the commencement of this meeting. The list had 58 names.

The Committee Secretary, Thembinkosi Ngoma, confirmed that the HR department had gone through the names on the list, in order to verify the qualifications and to conduct security checks. The list presented was authentic. The Committee now needed merely to submit the names of the candidates to be shortlisted.

The Chairperson asked how many candidates should appear on the shortlist.

Mr Ngoma replied that the Committee could shortlist as many candidates as it felt necessary.

The Chairperson asked the Members to suggest an appropriate number to be shortlisted for interview.


Ms  P van Damme (DA) suggested that there be no absolute limit to the number of candidates shortlisted.

The Chairperson then suggested that the Committee begin and see how the process unfolded, and what would become apparent during those deliberations.

Mr M Kekana (ANC) suggested that a number should be agreed upon in advance. He suggested that this should be around nine or ten candidates, allowing for three times as many candidates to interview as there were vacancies. 58 candidates was a very large number.

Ms D Tsotetsi (ANC) mentioned that the number to be shortlisted needed to be realistic, in case there was any fall out from the shortlist. She emphasised that only those deemed to be the most suitable candidates for the job should be shortlisted.

The Acting Chairperson added that the Members needed to agree how to approach this. He suggested that each Member of the Subcommittee should go through the full list of 58 names and  come up with their own shortlist. From those lists the Committee as a whole would shortlist preferred candidates even further.

Mr Kekana said that he preferred candidates who were clearly educated and would like to propose candidate 53.

Ms van Damme noted that she would shortlist according to the requirements of the SABC and the broadcasting legislation and so she would be looking to expertise and experience in the media. She said that she would like to nominate 14 candidates.

Ms O Matshoba (ANC) interrupted Ms van Damme as she was reading out her preferred names and said that this was too long a list. She suggested that each Member propose around five names.

Ms D Tsotetsi (ANC)also agreed that the list provided by Ms van Damme was too long, and emphasised the need for each Member to speak only briefly, to allow time for all to present their lists, and for further discussion.

Ms van Damme (DA) said was not happy with this, as she felt that good candidates would be excluded from the shortlisting process. She also felt that being limited to nominating five candidates would not be enough, .She asked the Acting Chairperson to explain how the shortlisting process would be conducted.

The Acting Chairperson said that he agreed with Ms Matshoba and Ms Tsotetsi. He asked Ms  van Damme to reconcile her list and possibly cut it down to a maximum of nine candidates. He then requested that Members should not nominate more than nine candidates.

Ms Matshoba presented her shortlisted candidates, as candidates 55, 53, 17, 58

Ms Tsotetsi wanted to nominate candidate 35

Mr Kekana agreed on the nomination of candidate 17, whom he also chose to nominate.

Ms van Damme narrowed down her list to a total of nine candidates.

Both Ms van Damme and Ms Tsotetsi nominated candidate 36, the former Head of the National Consumer Commission.

Ms Tsotetsi also nominated candidates 56 and 58.

The Acting Chairperson presented the list of his preferred candidates for interview, as candidates 17, 35, 40, 55, 53, 58 and 56.

He noted that there were some important details missing for candidate 40. He asked the Committee Secretary to check whether there had been any follow up to try to obtain the details. He then asked that the Committee Secretary firstly summarise who had been nominated by more than one subCommittee Member.

Mr Ngoma said that there had been a few attempts to contact candidate 40 but these had been unsuccessful.

He then presented the first group of candidate selected by more than one Member, as:
Candidates 17 and 53, both nominated by Mr Kekana, the Acting Chairperson and Ms Matshoba
Candidate 58, nominated by the Acting Chairperson, Ms Tsotetsi and Ms Matshoba
Candidate 36, nominated by Ms van Damme and Ms Tsotetsi
Candidate 56, nominated by the Acting Chairperson and Ms Tsotetsi.

The Acting Chairperson summed up that this was five names out of the nine candidates the subCommittee was seeking to shortlist so another four were needed.

He went through the list of people nominated by one person only and asked if other Members were prepared to support their addition to the list.

The Acting Chairperson noted that none of the candidates nominated by Ms van Damme, except for candidate 36 whom Ms Tsotetsi also supported, were recognised or agreed to by any other Member.

Mr Kekana asked to add another two candidates, being candidates number 55 and 35

Ms van Damme raised an objection and said that according to the SABC Act, a Board member should at least have experience in broadcasting, media and journalism in order to fit the standard requirements of a potential board member. She also emphasised that it was in the interest of the sub-committee to make sure that the members that are being shortlisted actually meet the criteria. Past experiences with SABC board members and the media would indicate that this should be an overriding concern, to ensure that the right candidates and the best candidates are chosen.

For this reason she did not approve of the current list. Although many of the candidates mentioned had great CVs and resumes, they did not have the required amount of experience in the broadcasting, media or journalism field. She mentioned that there had been allegations in the Western Cape that raised concerns about candidate 35, who despite holding an independent position, had been alleged to be furthering an ANC agenda. Finally, she urged the Committee to select candidates who would bring stability to the SABC board.

The Acting Chairperson objected to the point made by Ms van Damme. He said that the purpose of the shortlisting was not to scrutinise and criticise the candidates but purely to identify the nine best candidates out of the list of 58. Additionally, the purpose of the shortlisting process was not to identify areas in the CV that coincided with the Broadcasting Act, as further investigation would be made into this once the top candidates had been identified. The subCommittee's primary concern was, as a committee, to democratically decide on a list of members capable of filling the positions.

Ms Matshoba also did not agree with Ms van Damme, and believed that every one of the candidates brought forward was capable of gaining media experience in the lead up to the position.

Mr Kekana responded that Members at this meeting were not here to discredit any candidates brought forward. This was a democratic space and the short listing must be done in a democratic way. The Members must short list the candidates which were considered the best, and that list would move on to the interview process.

Ms Tsotetsi said that the purpose of the meeting was to identify potential candidates and that the legislation could be reviewed once the best candidates had been identified. She noted, from past experience, that some people had in the past been dishonest in their CVs and if there were any specific red flags that any Member wanted to raise, this should be done as soon as possible. She felt that if the minimum requirements were met by the list of 58 candidates presented to the Committee, then anyone could stand a fair chance of being shortlisted.

Ms van Damme said that the DA felt that more names should be added on to the list. If the Committee was really seeking the best of the best, more candidates with experience for the task at hand would be required. The DA would prefer to have someone who could come on to the board and immediately take on responsibility and guide decisions, rather than someone who would still need to learn. She again said that whilst some candidates had impressive CVs, they lacked the experience required to serve on the SABC Board. She commented that Members of the ANC were being allowed the opportunity to choose candidates whom they knew would be strengthening the ANC agenda.

The Chairperson interrupted Ms van Damme, saying that she was repeating issues already dealt with, and now felt that she was being disruptive and would not be permitted to speak further.

Ms Tsotetsi made the point that the meeting was not just steered by the ANC Members but was reaching its decision on the opinion of the whole Committee. Members must rely on the CVs in order to shortlist potential board members. Going through each candidate’s individual attributes would be time consuming at this point, so it was merely the shortlist process that was required.

Ms Matshoba said that Ms van Damme’s opinion was becoming louder than the rest of the Members and asked her to stop pushing her own agenda.

Ms van Damme kept emphasising that candidates needed to meet the requirements and must be ready to go fix the problems at the SABC.

The Acting Chairperson concluded that the final list would be determined democratically. He reminded Ms van Damme that even if the DA had objections, it must remember that the decision making was, at the end of the day, a collective process that was inclusive of all the members of the committee.
 
The Chairperson confirmed the seven candidates brought forward and nominated. He then noted that there was a need to nominate two further candidates.

After further deliberations, Mr Kekana and Ms Matshoba were both agreed on two more candidates: numbers 2 and 19.

The Acting Chairperson read out the list of the candidates for the shortlist:
17 – K Mayisela
53 – Prof Phendla
58 - K Mbokazi,
56 – F Maswanganyi
35 – J Irish-Qhobosheane
36 - M M Mulaudzi
5 - O Siphuka
2 – Prof Gumbi
19 – M Jones

The Acting Chairperson confirmed that the names presented fulfilled the requirements according to the SABC Act. These candidates would then be informed and interviewed further by the Committee sometime this week.